by gap74 » Mon May 31, 2004 2:15 pm
OK, on the back of this thread, I went hunting in Waterstones for a book they used to carry about trams, which was taken from some chap's collection of almost all colour slides. I never bought it when I first saw it a year or two ago, cos it was 25 quid, although I now regret it, since it was a small price to pay for so many unique colour prints of the place in the 50s and 60s.
Amazon appear to stock it, if this is indeed the right book - it's called The Twilight Years of the Glasgow Tram by Alastair Turnbull. I've ordered a copy, will let you all know if it appears!
Anyways, although Waterstones no longer had a copy, they did have a recently published book called Streets of Glasgow, by Alan Millar. Published by Ian Allen, it's along similar lines, with all colour pics of buses, trams and trolleybuses from various sources. Although written from a transport viewpoint, with lots of technical info on the buses and trams in the pics, it is a fantastic archive, and fits this thread perfectly. These men that I would once have considered quite sad taking pics of such things have preserved the ordinary street scenes that now fascinate me, and even the buses now interest me, although I should never admit in public that I know a Leyland Leopard from a Leyland Atlantean!
Ethically, plundering this book to put pics on this site leaves me feeling a wee bit guilty, and site admin may not take too kindly to such wholesale reproductions! But even if they only stay up for a short spell, I like to think it would pay dividends by getting at least a few of you to go out and buy a copy - the scans here are reduced and compressed to keep file size down, so if you like them, go out and buy the book - a mere 14.99 in Waterstones Sauchiehall St, they had about 10 in the Glasgow section yesterday!
Waterloo Street Bus Station - no, I didn't know this place ever existed either! This scene was taken in 1966, 5 years before it closed. The site is apparently where Central Exchange is being built now.
Union Street, March 1962, with what is now Black's just behind the first bus.
Trongate at Glasgow Cross, undated, but obviously pre-1962 since there's a tram or two there!
St George's Rd, from Charing Cross, looking north, Undated again, but obviously pre-dates the motorway, which obliterated everything on the right. The ABC cinema on the left is now a snooker club.
St Enoch Square, 1959, with the train station still looming on the right.
More to come....
Gary